Why You Should NOT Like Cookies
Back in my youth, in a time that seems so far away, I always stayed away from the kitchen for fear my Mom would have me help her (and eventually scold me) to prepare things, breakfast, lunch, dinner, it didn’t matter.
We used to fry french fries in a grease and lard filled cooking device and once the frying temperature was hot enough, the uncooked potatoes in a string form were dumped into the fryer.
Inevitably, I always got a small splatter of that grease on my hand or arm. To say it stung would be a great understatement.
I have not spent many moments in the kitchen, much to the disappointment of my wife who claims the only thing I ever made for her was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich before we left for the hospital to bring our daughter, Lauren, into the world. While I won’t deny that I did make that sandwich, I have not spent much time in the kitchen. I blame my mom for that as cooking with her was as delightful as getting third degree burns on my skin from being at the beach for eight hours without sunscreen. I don’t need to be nitpicked on by my mom for not cutting the cheese into perfect squares, or undercooking the french fries. I love my mom but it was a scary time with her hovering over me!
However, the one thing I didn’t mind was baking cookies and licking the cookie batter around the rim of the bowl. It was such a delight and today my favorite ice cream is vanilla with chocolate chip cookie dough. I once ate 1/2 of a tub of cookie batter that was sold in those cylinder type devices that the girls scouts or some organizations that raised money. I am sure my heart didn’t care for it but my taste buds did!!
Who doesn’t like cookies? Even a bad cookie is still pretty good, probably one of the best yearly occurrences is buying Girl Scouts cookies from them, either Thin Mints or Tagalongs, my two personal favorites.
But when we attempt to do something in baseball that resembles a ‘cookie-cutter’ approach to development, well those ‘cookies’ I do not care for at all.
To give a description of “cookie-cutter” approach to baseball, it would be teaching something specific to a group of players. In this instance, it would be pitchers. The coach would have ALL pitchers do the same thing because he felt it was THE thing to do and that everyone had to do the same thing as everyone else. The big 6’-3”, 200 lb pitcher would do the same delivery, or part of the delivery, as the 5’-3”, 145 lb player next to him. That cookie cutter approach was a way for the coach to keep everyone in the same line and approach.
This doesn’t work on so many levels. The biggest one is that every human being is created in their own unique way. Some are bigger than others and many have different length in the arms or legs. Some like moving their body one way and the other goes a different way to move. But when you make everyone do the same thing then you are taking the uniqueness out of the body and forcing that player to do something that doesn’t make sense to them.
No human swings a bat or throws a baseball like anyone else, so to make EVERYONE do the same thing is just pure nonsense. But for the coach, who if they do this are just plain lazy, to make everyone do the same thing is not the correct way to proper development, AND, is quite boring to players.
I know a coach at a certain private HS who tells everyone of his pitchers to stride their front leg as far as they can. This coach has a favorite smallish type MLB pitcher who has since retired but had a successful career, and his stride was ridiculously long, but this coach is cookie-cutting all of his players to do the same thing. It is unfortunate (can you imagine that that 5-4’ pitchers having to stride as long as the pitcher who is 6-4”, that shorter pitcher could literally tear a muscle in his groin or hip area) and I know for a fact that these particular pitchers could not stand doing this for fear of the coach not putting them in a game. One particular pitcher, who out of desperation came to me to get him out of a slumping year, I saw the video and told him immediately we had to fix that or he would never pitch past JV level. We eventually got him to change and became a Pitcher of the Year in his league that next season.
You have to teach a unique style to everyone who you work with, even if it is more ‘work’ to you, because everyone is different. If a coach says something that doesn’t make sense, or God-forbid hurts you, then you respectfully shake your head, Yes, and then do what is comfortable for you. If you pitch well then NO ONE ever says anything poorly about not doing something the way they want.
Quite honestly, coaches lose all sense of what they teach in practice when games are going on. If a hitter slumps and the coach is making him do something that that hitter doesn’t like, well, eventually the slump ends, and you go 4-4 with 2 doubles, no coach will try to change you. Same way with pitching, if you throw strikes then no one will tell you if you aren’t doing something correct. This is one of the most prevalent things in baseball with coaches. Have success in a game and everything is just fine…including the coach who unsuccessfully tried to ‘fix’ you.
So, make sure your son knows what is best for him in his unique way. If he does something funky and has great results, then he is on his way to success. Players should always experiment with their craft and find success with their uniqueness. Do not allow coaches to change something just because they are a ‘coach’. Good coaches encourage their players to do their best and be there for them if they need it. Coaches SHOULD NOT just talk because they are a coach on the team. Sadly, about 90% of people who coach don’t know what they are doing. Great intentions, bad results.
Allow yourself to enjoy cookies, just be careful to not let someone tell you his ‘cookie-cutter’ approach to baseball.
Until next time…
Jim
Jim Wagner's ThrowZone Academy 